Gilliam takes on protective duty

Wednesday

Mar 20, 2013 at 12:34 PMMar 20, 2013 at 12:39 PM

Cynthia Grau

Shawna Gilliam is on her feet the majority of the day, doing things that a lot of people wouldn’t guess she would do in a day, all while keeping students and staff safe inside the schools.Gilliam is a working mother with a good idea of what it takes to keep children safe at school. Her first-hand knowledge of safety arrives from her job as the resource officer for District 429, a position she has held for five years.A lot of what Gilliam does on a daily basis is diffusing situations that may arise inside the school. “If a student makes a threat on Facebook about another student in the building, then that becomes a scenario that I would handle,” she said, adding it’s becoming more and more of a problem with students making poor choices online.Other things that happen outside of school, like fights, inappropriate text messages and other face-to-face altercations can filter into the daily school routine, causing problems that she and the staff need to step in and handle. “So much of their home experiences affect their school, affect their education. If things aren’t OK outside of here, it’s our job to try to make them OK while they are here,” she said.Gilliam is up and around most of the day, patrolling the halls as time permits, making home visits to students who have too many unexcused absences and are on the verge of truancy issues and speaking with students who have specific office referrals. She even sits in on some parent-teacher meetings, depending on the nature.Gilliam explained that teachers have a duty to report issues students may be having at home. They can either report the problems to the Department of Children and Family Services, or they can speak with Gilliam about it, and then she can make the report.“A teacher may feel more comfortable making that first report to me versus contacting DCFS if they are uncertain. They can send them to me and if it needs to be a DCFS referral, I can make that,” she explained.She said that, although it doesn’t happen often at District #429, there are some instances where certain students have to be given extra attention.“Certainly, we have some kids who have made choices, whether it be at school or outside of school … where we may have some extra safety measures in place for them. They might have to do a check-in first thing in the morning. They may have to empty their pockets just so we know they are, in fact, not bringing in any contraband or weapons or anything into the school setting,” she explained.Something that Gilliam really enjoys about her position is being an example of a police officer that isn’t seen in movies or out in the street. She said that a negative light is cast on police officers and this is a great opportunity to show students how positive it is to know a police officer and that they can interact with her, which was proven constantly on Monday, as students spoke with her in the halls, approached her during lunch and just said hello. They didn’t necessarily talk to her about problems or anything a person would talk to an officer about. They seemed to tell her things like how their weekend went, how their friends are doing or they just asked her how she was doing that morning.“So many of these kids have seen me in the school setting over the last five years and most of them just come up and call me Officer Shawna. To me, they have that level of comfort that they can call me by my first name, however, they’ve all learned that I’ve earned my title, but I’m not a stickler on that,” she said. “They’re used to seeing my face, they’re more comfortable with me. Even if I’m out patrolling on a day that there’s no school and they see me, they recognize me and feel comfortable approaching me and that’s huge because it gives them that level of comfort knowing that there’s a consistent person and consistent officer that’s coming in the building every day.”Gilliam said that it is important to her for the students to feel comfortable with her, but knows if she has to see them for disciplinary purposes that she means business. She said that the students, for the most part, understand that and don’t seem to hold grudges.She said it’s important for her to “bridge the gap,” a term she’s used since she started her position. She said, especially in the middle school setting, if students have had any contact with police for any reason, it has probably been negative, which she doesn’t want to stick with them for life.“I am here. They can talk to me, they can joke around with me and ask me questions.” Besides her duty to protect the school, she can also be seen conducting different programs in the classrooms, beginning with pre-kindergarten all the way through eighth grade.During Community Career Week at Central School, Gilliam visits the youngest classes, explaining her role as a police officer, as well as her role in the school.“At that age, they’re often afraid of us because parents, unknowing, will make comments like, ‘You better get in your seatbelt or the police officer will arrest you.’ Children have this image that we’re this big, bad person that will take them away, so I go in and tell them about my job … that they don’t need to be afraid of us and that we are somebody they can approach if there’s something that’s gone bad,” she said.She gets a little more in-depth with the sixth grade classes, explaining some detective work in their science classes.“They talk about linear and vertical observation skills, and I’ll go in and talk about that and I’ll use the background of being in investigations and when you process a (crime) scene. You need to start at the top and work your way down or start at the left and use those observations that they’re talking about in a science setting and just put it to real terms in a real profession,” Gilliam explained.She also visits eighth grade classes, having a question and answer session concerning the Fifth Amendment. “They always have so many questions about search and seizure and Miranda Rights. Whatever question they can come up with, I try to answer for them from the legal standpoint,” she said.There is a big debate happening nationwide whether schools should have armed officers stationed inside their walls, and Gilliam has definitely taken a side in that debate. “There aren’t any cons from a school’s standpoint. People make comments, such as, ‘Oh a student can come up and get their gun.’ They’re not getting it,” she said. “We’re trained. It’s no different than if I’m out on the street and someone was attempting to disarm me. I’m going to handle that situation very much the same as if the student was trying to do it. I can’t think of anything as far as what would be a negative outcome of me being in this position.”She said the biggest pro is response time to a potential threat.“I’m in the building. I’m a radio call away if something were to happen here or in any of the buildings. It’s not a 911 call where they’re going to have to wait for officers to respond,” she said, emphasizing that most tragedies happen in the first few seconds of a situation. She also said that since she works inside the school, there is more training for potential threats, as well as code red safety drills.“Being able to be here and work with them and teach them how to respond in case of a situation is important,” she said. We meet with the administration and staff on a regular basis and just talk about how we would handle different types of situations.”To Gilliam, it’s all about working together to better protect the students and staff.“We obviously can’t train for every situation that could possibly happen, but we are training together,” she said. “The police are working together with the staff here so, if anything were ever to happen, hopefully we would all be on the same page on how to respond.”And, so far, their approach has been a success.

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